Poem for Someone Else’s Wife

This poem is from the book Punk Rock and Science Fiction: Poems by Julie River available now from Q Publishing.

String theory suggests there are infinite universes parallel to our own
Which means that everything you can imagine exists somewhere in another universe.
I want to find a portal to the universe
Where you’re in love with me
And we get to spend the rest of our lives together.
That or the universe where Doctor Who is real.
Or the one where Buffy is real.
Fuck it, if there are infinite possibilities,
I want the one where Doctor Who and Buffy are real
And you and I get to be together.
I’ve got a junior scientist kit
Hooked up to a microwave
And every episode of Sliders on DVD.
I’m determined to figure out how to break into another universe.
Until then, I’ve got a medical marijuana card
And an overactive imagination.
You can show up in my dreams
And make my nightmares happy.

There’s a player piano in your chest
That knows every note to my song.
It’s the full text of Finnegan’s Wake
Recited over a Ben Folds instrumental.
What I mean is I have taste and make no sense.
I got lost in a spiderweb
Disguised as a major corporation
And am slowly being devoured.
You were the only other fly
That’s sitting there surviving.
You make me look forward to Mondays
And dread weekends.

Your husband, I’ll admit, is a pretty cool guy.
I don’t want to like him, but I do.
I get why the two of you are together.
Maybe you could love two people?

But this is something I’ve never felt before.
I’d like it if I could be with you
It would make me happier.
But if I never had the chance
(Which it’s likely I never will)
The mere fact of you brings me joy.
It just makes me happy to know that you’re out there.
In the world.
Being your awesome self.
You four-eyed joy machine.

I pray you let me never be a stranger,
Nor an acquaintance.
Never less than importance.
I want to be the lighter in your pocket,
A pen behind your ear,
The bottle of vodka on your living room table,
Something you reach for when you feel a very important need.
I can be whatever is most necessary.
Let me be your Swiss Army Knife.
A choose your own adventure novel
That’s half blank pages
So you can write in whatever ending
You want the most.
Because you are the greatest story I’ve ever read
And I would give anything to be a main character.